


Listen to the Colour of Your Dreams

by low_qualityhope



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Regular Dude! Alec, Soulmate AU, Soulmate AU in which you can't see your soulmate's eye colour until you meet them, Street Musician! Magnus, alec has so much shit to deal with, it is a firm belief of mine that in a human universe they're all buddies idk why, the people playing with magnus are clary and simon btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 17:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10598580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/low_qualityhope/pseuds/low_qualityhope
Summary: In Alec’s world, one’s ultimate goal in life was rarely something as mundane and trivial as getting your dream job, or winning the lottery. No child grew up wishing only that they’d become an astronaut one day; no one grew up wishing for just money.No, things like that were too common, too out of one’s control. Children didn’t want to beg for things they didn’t know they had a chance with. In Alec’s world, people wished for their Soulmate. For their colour.*****When Alec was ten years old, he realised the colour he'd been missing was one called 'gold'. Izzy had told him of its beauty.He'd never understood what she meant until now.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a sucker for Soulmate AUs. That is my excuse.  
> This is only short, but I'm open to writing more chapters if people really want them.  
> The title is from The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," but only because that line fitted this story perfectly. The song itself is nothing to do with it, so don't bother listening to it for this fic. HOWEVER, the song you should listen to is Lindsey Sterling's violin cover of "My Immortal," by Evanescence. It's what I imagined Magnus, Clary, and Simon were playing, and it's an incredible cover anyway. Seriously, listen to it.  
> Thanks for reading :)

"Listen to the Colour of Your Dreams"

 

In Alec’s world, one’s ultimate goal in life was rarely something as mundane and trivial as getting your dream job, or winning the lottery. No child grew up wishing only that they’d become an astronaut one day; no one grew up wishing for just money.

No, things like that were too common, too out of one’s control. Children didn’t want to beg for things they didn’t know they had a chance with. In Alec’s world, people wished for their Soulmate. For their colour.

When Alec had been ten years old, their family adopted a boy around his age. Jace had been perfect, with sculpted features, sharp for someone so young. Alec had - and still - adored him, but there had been something that had always struck him as odd. For some reason, beyond him, Jace’s hair, eyes, and even hints of his skin, was a dull, unexciting blank, different to most people around him.

A few months into their friendship, Alec had finally felt confident enough that Jace wouldn’t reject him the answer, and asked him one night in front of the television. Jace had looked confused for a few seconds, before bursting into a fit of surprised laughter.

“Alec,” He had said, “My hair is blond. My eyes are gold!”

And Alec had simply watched him, puzzled, until his step - brother had calmed down enough to explain in a hushed voice, “It’s your Blank, Alec. Your Soulmate’s eyes must be gold, too!”

Isabelle, expectedly, had freaked out when they told her their discovery, bouncing around in their mother’s heels like a crazed kangaroo and shrieking about how rare gold eyes are. (Jace had gotten into a huff at that.)

Alec, on the other hand, had stayed quiet. He’d lain awake for hours that night, thinking of the mystery face of his Soulmate, who they might be, what colour their eyes were. Jace had said they were gold, but to him that meant nothing.

His mother had asked him once, after that, to describe what Blank looked like. In all honesty, it had been one of the most difficult questions he’s ever had to answer. At the time, he’d been learning about space in school, and the only way Alec could think of to explain it was what he thought a vacuum would look like if you lit it up with a torch; a dull, colourless colour.

How else were you supposed to describe a colour someone else hadn’t seen? Since Maryse had grown up with Robert Lightwood, she couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t able to see what would have been her Blank; for her, blue.

It was impossible to imagine a new colour, something he couldn’t see. And now that he knew of it, Alec couldn’t wait to see it.

*****

They’d figured out that Izzy’s Blank was brown the week after, and that Jace’s was green the week after that. Alec listened to his siblings trying to explain colours to each other, thinking of what Isabelle had told him of gold already.

 _A little like yellow, but shinier_ , she’d said, but then Alec had pointed out that yellow was rather dull to him, too. Izzy had simply changed her approach. _You’ve heard of the stone gold, though? It’s one of the more precious stones. And Alec, it’s so beautiful. They must be incredible._

Alec thought so, too.

*****

Eight years later, and Alec was still curious about it, even as he buttoned up his uniform for work. That sort of thing never really left your mind, and - if that was Isabelle again, he was going to kill her.

“Iz!” That is, if Jace didn’t beat him to it. “Shut up!”

Alec emerged from his bedroom and ventured cautiously down the stairs, peeking through the banister at the kitchen table, where his family was sat. Or rather, his parents and Jace were, while his sister danced around the room, singing a Little Mix song at the top of her lungs and holding a pan of what looked suspiciously like pancakes.

Automatically, the eldest Lightwood child cringed and backed away, hoping to avoid the infamous horrors of the Isabelle Lightwood Cooking. Obviously, because the universe seemed to hate him, he had no suck luck.

“Alexander, just in time. We need to discuss something for the company.” Maryse caught his eye and patted the wooden seat beside her, oblivious to her son’s inner trauma. With a barely contained sigh, Alec descended the last few steps and plopped down into the seat, trying to wake himself up enough to talk business.

Jace snickered at him over his mug of coffee. God, his family was exhausting.

*****

It was just past mid-day, and the streets of New York were packed and bustling; Alec had finally been let off for lunch break, and had escaped his office for a breath of fresh air and to stretch his legs. He took a slightly less busy street, a shopping one with no cars.

His first intention was to find a nice coffee shop and buy something there, but the full, drawn-out sound of a violin made him pause. This wasn’t some half good beginner looking for an extra bit of cash, this was a high-quality, talented musician who sounded like they should be touring the world, not playing to fleeting ears on the street.

The music appeared to be coming from Alec’s left, in front of the shops on the other side of the path, so he moved closer to see who was playing. Now that he was focusing more on it, he could hear the distinct sound of a keyboard being played alongside the violin. Then, a few people in the shopping crowd shifted aside, providing Alec with a full view of the musicians: in the background, there was a keyboard with a redheaded girl behind it, and a drum set with a brown-haired boy with glasses, who wasn’t playing just yet. And right at the front, in the middle, was the violinist.

He was a young man, maybe a year or so older than Alec, and he was _absolutely stunning_.

Hair as dark as the black India ink that Isabelle sometimes used in a drawing was styled into elegant spikes around his head, and his tanned, faintly Blank coloured skin shimmered with colourful makeup and glitter. His clothing was modern, but the way in which he wore it - shirt tucked in, smart shoes - had a uniquely old-fashioned air to it. And the style in which he played, moving around, almost dancing, was strangely, inexplicably…captivating.

Alec watched from a distance as the song’s tempo picked up and the skill these people played with really started to shine through. The drums joined in, and Alec was surprised to discover that this mix of classical instruments and modern actually worked. The drummer brought depth to the tune, the pianist’s fingers darted nimbly over the keys, and the violinist’s notes flew high over the gathering crowd, elegant and _free_ ….

The crowd around him broke into sudden rapturous applause, making Alec jump; he glanced around, realising that the song had finished. _Wow_. Surely it wasn’t so easy to get that wrapped up in a piece of music, no matter how good?

Alec looked back at the musicians – they were laughing and smiling, bowing ridiculously low. Almost all of the people that had stayed to listen were dropping coins and even notes into the box at their feet, but they were leaving now and Alec felt himself moving forward, dropping down to add in his own money and starting to straighten up-

“Why, hello there.” The voice stroked over the back of his neck like silk. Alec glanced up at the sound of it.

And his world exploded.

Where before, everything had been tinted, slightly, with Blank, the street around him seemed to suddenly burst with light, radiating out from the eyes of the man in front of him. The sky was brighter, the sun, and _oh_ , his eyes were… _gold_.

And Isabelle had tried to tell him about it, but nothing, _nothing_ , could have prepared him for this.

It was… it was like the scent of honey, like hot coffee, like someone had melted light down into a singular colour. Like liquid love. Exotic, but familiar. Different, but it felt like home.

Alec couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“ _Oh_ ,” The man - the violinist – murmured, his beautiful eyes wide as they darted between Alec’s own and the sky above them. Through his looming excitement, Alec felt a small pang of guilt at the realization that this man hadn’t been able to see the _sky_ his whole life because of him. “ _Hello_.”

His voice quiet, Alec replied with a simple, soft, “Hi.”

With a slow, bright smile, his Soulmate held out a dainty hand to him, whilst indicating the road to Alec’s right with the other. “Oh, we have so much to talk about.”

So with a light in his eyes and a hand in his own, Alec went willingly with the man that the universe had chosen to be his destiny.

His mother might have scolded him later, and his siblings wouldn’t stop pestering him, but Alec found that he couldn’t care less.

This was new, this was exciting, and he wanted to get to know this man more. But for now, this was enough.

END


End file.
